any body. The external action or move|ment of the body is often the same in the most innocent, and in the most blameable actions. He who shoots a bird, and he who shoots a man, both of them perform the same external movement: each of them draws the tricker of a gun. The conse|quences which actually, and in fact, hap|pen to proceed from any action, are, if possible, still more indifferent either to praise or blame, than even the external movement of the body. As they depend, not upon the agent, but upon fortune, they cannot be the proper foundation for any sentiment, of which his character and conduct are the objects.
The only consequences for which he can be answerable, or by which he can deserve either approbation or disapprobation of any kind, are those which were some way or other intended, or those which, at least, show some agreeable or disagreeable qua|lity in the intention of the heart, from which he acted. To the intention or af|fection of the heart, therefore, to the pro|priety or impropriety, to the beneficence or hurtfulness of the design, all praise or blame, all approbation or disapprobation,
